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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

I Love doing life and school with my children. I count it very much a blessing from the Lord. To watch light bulbs come on in their heads and the twinkle they get in their eyes when they have understood reading, or a new math concept, or really get a teaching from God's word. PURE JOY!!!!

Ethan has amazed me this year with his reading. I always find him tucked away reading a book these days. This in itself is a blessing since our boy struggled so long with reading. Now an avid reader. WOW! I caught him up the other night at 11:30 reading. He apologized and told me he didn't realize what time it was. How can I get mad at that. Our boy is on his 18th Chapter book this school year. This is just his personal reading. This mama is so happy for him, and proud of her son. Ethan also is excelling in Mandolin and is about to pass up his daddy's skills on these strings too. :)

Austin is my little professor absorbing all things knowledge in every subject. He LOVES to learn, but he tends to be quite the perfectionist. We are trying to teach that it is okay to make a mistake that that is how you learn. Austin is loving Piano and the challenge of his new Piano teacher Ms. Hannah. She is Amazing and pushes him and he is thriving. Austin is game for the challenge and his Piano has taken off. Austin also loves to build and create things out of Legos, Magformers, Blocks anything he can create he does.

Corbin my free and happy spirit always has a happy heart to learn and enjoys his Math. He is a little numbers boy and has the greatest memory I have seen. This boy is Auditory and retains very well this way, as long as his hands can stay busy. He also is excelling in Piano and Loves playing. He always looks forward to Mondays when he can show Ms. Hannah how hard he worked.

Cora is thriving in the homeschool routine. She loves waking up and knowing her day. This has been a great comfort to her feeling safe and loved. This month she has just blown my mind. She is thriving and working so hard doing her school. Cora loves to snuggle up daily when we do our Bible and Reading time for our Before Five in a Row. She works through her work boxes to build her skills with Color recognition (which she has them down now), Letter and Sound recognition, and Numbers. She loves all things crafty so that is added in our day too. What has amazed me is she is already narrating stories back to me, enjoying poetry and creating pictures to go along with the poems we read. She also has started to tell me a story about pictures we study and I write it down and put the date, so she can look back and she all she has accomplished in such a short time with her Forever Family.

Miss Mia is doing well and always has us laughing over something she said. Princess still loves being the center of attention, and we are trying to work on that. Mia Loves her school as she calls it. We are using BFIAR with her and Cora this year. Mia loves the stories, crafts, and her workboxes too. She has learned all her colors, most all her letters and sounds, and number recognition. Proud of my little tot that wants to be like Big Sister. Even though the girls have an age gap they are becoming such dear friends and sisters and it is a blessing to watch.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Merry, Merry Christmas from the Leggio Family. We celebrated our Christmas at home and headed to my parents in Sante Fe New Mexico for seven days. The snow blew in for a White Christmas time. The boys played airsoft with Daddy and Uncle Josh, we went ice skating a couple times, Joe and I celebrated our 16 year wedding anniversary with a skiing date, and snow playing were all the fun things in Sante Fe this year. When we got home we headed to Grandpa and Grandma Leggio's ' for Christmas with them. We are blessed to have a lot of family near by. A whole lot of JOY to be had!!!!!

Our focus can't ever come off of why we celebrate this season. The Christ Child. Who came down from a Heavenly Kingdom and endured burdens and sin. At 33 years old took on all our burdens and sin and was sacrificed for the sin of the world. Why? Because he loves us. He loves you. And we celebrate him in this season and always.

Cora had a Very Happy Birthday Indeed. So glad to have her home and safe and be able to celebrate the beautiful life God gave her. We talked of China and Birthdays. She has told us China doesn't do them for them, and she doesn't even know how old she is. I understand this, and all the children that are in the orphanages, but a mama's heart broke. These children need to know they are Loved first by their creator, and others that will answer the call to adopt or help these precious babes.

Birthday festivities in our home consist of a special date with Papaw Wow Wow and Mimi. My parents take the kids to lunch and shopping for their present each year. A special time for them to get some one on one with the kids. But this year since Cora is still fairly new home, and gets a bit over stimulated with all the birthday and Christmas talk, Mommy and Mia tagged along for the ride. Cora wanted Chinese food for lunch and a Doll. So we headed to the American Girl store to let her pick out a her very own special doll. The order from our girl was she wanted her to have long yellow hair (LOL). So her doll of choice was a traditional doll from the 1800's Caroline. She is smitten by her. Thank you Papaw Wow Wow and Mimi!!!!!

On her birthday we let her open her present from us. Her very own doll stroller to push Caroline in. This sweet girl Loves her Doll and stroller. She loves taking care of her, and it is sweet to watch.

We had a little family birthday party with grandparents, and Uncles and Aunts and our sweet little nephew Oliver. Cora wanted a Minnie Mouse Party so that is what she got. Daddy was the cake decorator, and she was very happy to get to have her party. It made this mam a bit teary to think of all the years she lived without a forever family. Very Thankful.

I wanted to talk a bit about where we are with Sweet Cora.

What she likes: Cora loves her DOLL, she loves the girl Legos, Crafting, Doing School with Mommy, Riding her scooter and playing outside.

How She has Grown in the past six months: Her English has exploded and she is speaking so well, She is learning how to Love and be in a family, She is pretty Joyful and Happy, She loves being here with us, She makes her bed, Loves to help me clean and bake.

Things we are still working on: We are still working on some things like sharing. She has had to fight tooth and nail for everything and gets possessive with things, although she is learning how to share slowly. We know it will come. She lies still which was also learned as survival in the orphanage. We are working on being truthful and why we need to be truthful. Honestly at times this can feel exhausting for me and frustrating for the other Leggio Loves. But we know God is redemptive in this also and she will see the Joy in Truth, and that she is in a safe place to be truthful. And lastly she is extremely independent, again still things we are trying to undo. Independence isn't a bad thing when it is used right and within the scripture of God's word. Her independence is usually telling me NO or Why, or throwing a tantrum to get her way. She is going through all the emotions right now as she learns to function in a family. God id growing all of us for the best. We are learning to die to self, serve, love like Jesus. All great qualities I can't wait to see the fruit of.

We are very, very thankful that we did not walk in fear with our sweet girl. God is good and redemptive. Watching her blossom and learn and experience all things is amazing. So glad we have a front seat to watch God work.